Halfway There
by InBetweentheKeys
Summary: "Sora…" she was blushing."Yeah?" he replied. "I.. I've been meaning to tell you this for a while now.. Something I realized, and it became really obvious just a minute ago… but.." the girl paused. "What is it, Kairi?" his cheeks, too, were beginning to heat up as they made their way back to the other islanders. SoraxKairi Sora/Kairi


Hey guys, Keys here! Of course... You already knew that... ANYWAY...

This is my first Kingdom Hearts fic so it's just a oneshot. Hope you all enjoy it!

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own Kingdom Hearts. I own the plot of this little story and the Paopu Festival (sorta)

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Halfway There

Scents of sea salt and various festive foods filled the air on the Destiny Islands on the day of the Paopu Festival. All the islanders had come to Sora, Riku, and Kairi's to join in on the party, but it was still a small one. Sure it was bigger than the previous year's, but still quite small.

The adults were by the shaded part of the island, half of them running the few stands around and the other half having fun watching the children. Said children were making up new games or playing old ones from the previous year.

Selphie and Tidus were trying to coax Wakka into a race with Kairi, and although it wasn't a hard thing to do, both of them wanted a specific kind of race. A three-legged race across the beach. Through the water. Sora and Riku had promised to follow along with them to be the referees, so why not?

Kairi grinned over at Selphie whilst knotting their legs together and prepared to wipe the floor with the boys. "We'll beat 'em good! We'll show those boys, won't we?" the brunette girl was already trash-talking them. On the other side of the competition, Wakka and Tidus were doing quite the same. "I'm the best racer around here! I'm gonna be the three-legger champion!" Tidus had a cocky smirk plastered on his face as he pointed his thumb into his chest for emphasis. "Don't you mean _**we're**_ going to be the champions?" Wakka glanced from the very corner of his vision, an incredulous glimmer held in the muddy brown eyes.

"Everyone good to go?" the silver-white-haired boy called from several yards ahead. When both teams nodded to him, Riku threw his arm straight up into the air, stick in hand, pointed into the sky. "Ready…Set…Go!" Aforementioned stick was now directing the racers towards Sora, the "target." To reach him first was the goal of both teams, but who would win was the big question.

Selphie and Kairi took the lead, but were soon met by the boys. Wakka and Tidus took "first prize", of course, and the other two were last, naturally. "Hey, good job, guys!" both boys told them together. Kairi just nodded and Selphie had her head hung, eyes cast to the hot summer sand below them.

Riku ran towards the rest of them with a few pieces of sweet-smelling somethings, ready to hand it over to the winners of their little competition. "Here it is. First prize is Paopu Taffy," Sora told them while "officially" awarding them. Afterwards, the gang sat on a rock above a tide pool, all of them laughing and munching on taffy.

"Hey, guys! Watch this!" Tidus told them, leaping across from one end of the crescent-shaped rock to the other over the shallow water. Both girls ooh-ed and ah-ed at his bravery, then at all of the boys as they started to follow along with him. Even Selphie began bouncing around like that. "Hey, Kairi! You should try this, it's fun!" she giggled.

"I-I don't think so," she told them. "C'mon, Kairi. We'll help you!" Sora assured her. Finally, somehow, Kairi was standing up on one side of the boulder. Sora and Riku were on the other end, ready to congratulate her if she did it, or catch her if she failed. The girl clenched her eyes shut and took a huge jump, doing her best not to flail in the air that scared her so. That falling feeling overcame her as she went through the air. She was shocked when she found herself standing beside of her two best friends, smiling slightly to herself. "Great job! You did it!" Everyone around her was cheering her on, and Kairi just couldn't help but to giggle and bow.

Then, as she was about to regain her standing position, her foot slipped and she felt herself falling once more. Falling backwards. She leaned forward a bit, trying her best to land on her feet. The redheaded young girl did land on her feet, but not in the way she would've wanted to. She plunged to her knees soon after, tears filling her eyes.

"Kairi!" Selphie gasped, letting herself down to where she was balled up. There was a bit of blood seeping through Kairi's shoes, mixing with the saltwater that had entered the tide pool.

The boys (and Selphie) helped the sobbing girl back up on top of the rock ledge, Riku and Wakka at the bottom trying to find out what had happened. "Kairi, what's wro-"Tidus started to ask, but then saw the hole in the bottom of the white and lavender article of footwear. Riku could only point at the spiky urchin responsible for their friend's pain.

Kairi pulled her shoes off, both of them soaked through with water and one with spots of blood added. A final sniff was heard after her feet were dried and the girl's tears disappeared. "That thing is what hurt me?" she asked while Riku was busy smashing what was once a little ball-like organism. Wakka nodded to her.

Selphie stood up, looking down at the others gathered 'round, "We need to get her back to the adults. They'll know how to fix it!" Wakka shook his head, the one spike on the top bouncing with it. "Nope. The sand is too hot to walk on it barefoot, and her shoes are soaked. She stopped crying once we got them off, so she can't put _them_ back on." All eyes turned to Riku for a moment as he was utterly destroying the small, unfortunate sea creature, yelling, "Take that, friend-hurter!" The blue-green eyes widened at everyone's staring and he kicked the remains back under a crevice, pulling himself back up to the others.

"So what, wait until after dark? It's barely afternoon!" Kairi exclaimed after that excitement was over. Silence covered them all, until finally, Sora-who'd been the quietest of them all-began to unlace his shoes. Once he'd accomplished that, he slipped them off and gave them to the now injured girl. "Here, take mine. Let's go," he smiled comfortingly at her. Sora, too, stood up with arm outstretched to little Kairi.

"But Sora-" she started. "No buts. C'mon."

So, Kairi pulled on his shoes, re-tied them, and let him help her towards the rest of the people. Sora was doing well at not wincing everytime he took a step. Wakka had been right, the sand was really hot… but he was helping Kairi, so he just sucked it up.

"Sora…" she was blushing."Yeah?" he replied. "I.. I've been meaning to tell you this for a while now.. Something I realized, and it became really obvious just a minute ago… but.." the girl paused. "What is it, Kairi?" his cheeks, too, were beginning to heat up as they made their way back to the other islanders. The others had apparently decided to stay where they were. Riku could be heard in the distance, attacking the extremely-dead creature once again.

"I…You…" Kairi sucked in a deep breath, ready to just blurt it out. "You have really, _really_ big feet!" Sora blinked, and then started to laugh at her. "Is that it? Seriously?" he was holding his stomach with the arm not supporting her shoulders. Kairi just watched in awe. "I thought… maybe it would hurt your feelings. You know, like I was making fun of you… But I figured you ought to know what I thought. " "Well, maybe it's not that I have big feet.. Maybe you just have little feet. Or I've got big shoes."

Kairi started to giggle at him, and Sora smiled… although inside he was a bit disappointed. He thought she was going to say something… well, something else. "Yup. I have a long way to go to fill these big shoes. But I'm halfway there," she beamed.

They got back to the adults, who saw her quickly and thanked him for bringing her back. Kairi smiled, "Thanks, Sora. You're the best." Her words were quiet. She glanced down for a moment before leaning over to kiss his cheek. Her grandmother took her inside one of the huts, and Sora just stood there, dumbstruck. He returned to reality soon enough, grinning like a stupid person. "Hey, Sora!"

The brunet turned to see his best friend running towards him. "Sora, what just happened here? You seem awful happy; did they take care of her?" Riku asked. The recipient of the question answered with a brief "yes" before staring back towards the house they'd taken her to.

Riku rolled his eyes, "Come on. I'll race you to the tree over there!" "You're on!" The two bolted to the finish point, Riku winning, as usual. "Looks like you've got a long way to go before you can beat me!" the cocky remark. A never-fail reaction to his victory. Sora chuckled. Riku was right, he did have a long way. But at least he was halfway there.

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**[A/N] **This was my cute little story. Please give any criticism you think I need, just please be kind. And yes, I know Riku is a bit out-of-character but I wanted him to be for this.

Sora: Keys, you meanie! This was supposed to be touching and you screwed it up!  
Keys: Not completely! It was just a teaser. The touching thing was at the _very_ end.  
Sora: -pouts- meanie...  
Keys: oh, well. PLEAAASSSEEEE review for me! Even if you don't have much to say. Just tell me what you think!


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